Simpler Times, Beatles Cards and Red Wax Lips

With all that’s going on in the world right now, and certainly not to minimize, my thoughts were stirred by an image in my computer repair shop.

There on the wall were some old computer punch cards. You know the ones? From back in the day when computers took up entire rooms.

And that got me thinking of simpler things and simpler times. Not because I’m avoiding thinking about all of the strife and struggle in the world. But to actively think about things that give me happiness and hope and put a smile on my face. Here’s what came to mind:

There was a corner store en route to my school called The Dot Shop. After school, my friends and I would stop into this heavenly little shop that was full of 10 cent popsicles, lik-m-aid, red wax lips, black licorice pipes, bubble gum packets with Beatles cards (oh how I wish I knew where my Beatles cards went!) and bins of candies and toys and plastic whatchamacallits.

Beyond the nostalgia, I think it’s important that we remember and treasure things, not in the hopes of going back, but in the spirit of moving forward.

Let some wonderful memories propel you forward today.

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This post hitting my inbox right now is such karma! As I write this, I’m sitting at a bar in one of my favorite restaurants with a glass of wine and enjoying some seriously retro music, from Air Supply to Saturday Night Fever. As much as it’s good to “be in the moment” I think it’s just as good to remind ourselves that this moment is not the whole of who we are. Here’s to the fun memories, and the ones we’re yet to create!

“Memories, pressed between the pages of my mind…” Likely before your time. Here’s to reflecting on those memories from days past, and to creating those that will become the pages of one’s mind. Cheers!

You give me too much credit for being younger than I am 🙂 I was never much into wax lips but I remember wax bottles! The ones with the little squirt of sugar water inside that came in all different colors and you got a little burst of liquid then chewed on the wax. So gross in retrospect, lol. But so much fun!

And…pixie stix, dubble bubble, liquorice shoelaces, cigarette sticks (so not PC today), MacIntosh caramel…It wasn’t even about buying the stuff, it was about standing in the Dot Shop and looking at all the colours and fun!

Yes pixie stix! omg, can you imagine all the vegan gluten free low carb no sugar millennial hipster helicopter parents of today letting their kids bring a bag of pixie stix to school? I don’t even think the school would allow it!

Wendy Appleton

Wow you just reminded me, I used to be a punch card operator before I was married. Sitting in that huge office with the machines going clunk, clunk all day long. You couldn’t hear yourself think and then there were the huge IBM computers in the computer room, I hated every minute.